Live Mesh Preview: It's Wait-List Only

Microsoft quietly opened its Live Mesh preview to more testers on July 15, but by today (July 17), the offer had been narrowed to just waiting-list only.

Live Mesh is Microsoft's new open platform for enabling the broader connectivity of applications across different platforms. Applications can connect to data wherever located via the Internet, across multiple devices. Live Mesh also includes a synchronization capability that will enable users to keep working when offline, and then it will automatically refresh the data when the user comes back online.

The Live Mesh platform, which features pub/sub, collaboration and data storage features, got its big debut before developers in April.

The Live Mesh preview originally was available by invitation only. However, a July 15 Microsoft Forum post said that the preview is now open to anyone with a Windows Live ID.

The offer is for U.S.-based testers of Live Mesh, but there's a workaround for those located outside the United States. The Forum post suggested interested parties change their Windows region and language preference settings to "US-EN" to sign up for the preview.

Microsoft's Chief Architect Ray Ozzie has been shepherding Live Mesh as part of Microsoft's broader "software plus services" vision in which companies will use a combination of both installed solutions and cloud computing.

Microsoft has already entered the cloud-based world by rolling out some of its hosted applications, including Microsoft CRM Online, Exchange Online and SharePoint Online.

At its Worldwide Partner Conference, Microsoft executives told its partner community -- the traditional providers of Microsoft installed solutions -- that Microsoft will deliver its hosted applications directly to businesses in some cases using its own server farms, which Microsoft has been growing in recent months.